


Watch This if Found

by CaesiumDressing



Series: Huxloween stuffs [25]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Blood, Found Footage, Gore, M/M, Unhappy Ending, Zombies, empty starships are scary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 02:00:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8383525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaesiumDressing/pseuds/CaesiumDressing
Summary: A detachment of Stormtroopers go on a rescue mission to the drifting Finalizer.Written for Huxloween Prompt: Zombies





	

“What a horrifying sight,” the stormtrooper captain says, surveying the drifting _Finalizer_ as their rescue shuttle approaches the docking bay. There is no light coming from the hulking ship and the last transmission had been from a distress becon dropped a system back. That was two standard weeks ago.

“Alright troops,” Captain RO-1320 says, turning away from the viewport and the sight that would haunt his dreams for years to come. “We are going to board the _Finalizer_ and sweep it. What we know from the ship logs and the last messages we received, there was an outbreak of a virus that saw much of the crew go mad. Our first priority is to find and evacuate the General and Kylo Ren,” the troopers nodding unison.

“Yes sir!” they come back in chorus.

As soon as the ship had docked the troop begins pushing its way through the darkened halls of the _Finalizer_ ’s interior. Using the blueprints they found archived on the computers back on the homeworld they determined what the quickest path to the General’s quarters were. Here and there they notice splatters of rust brown across the silver durasteel floors. The troopers know what it is, they are familiar with the look of dried blood. But they push on.

They only falter when they find the first body. It is stretched out against the wall of the corridor. A quick sweep of the handheld light that is guiding their way tells them everything they need to know. The very first thing they notice is that the corpse was dressed in an Officer’s uniform, but it is impossible to determine the rank. At the very least it isn’t the General, beyond that, the body is badly decomposed. For a place as sterile as a star destroyer, bodies rot quickly. If the Captain had to venture a guess as to how this Officer died, he’d assume it was from the significant chunk of their throat that was missing.

“Let’s move on,” the Captain say, pointing the light ahead of them and moving on. They needed to find the General and Kylo Ren and evacuate them. Then they could find out what happened here.

The troop arrives at General Hux’s quarters. The Captain quickly uses the emergency override to open the door.

“General Hux?” the Captain calls into the room. There is no reply. He signals to his troopers to spread out and look around. The file into the space and began checking the corners.

“Oh no,” the Captain hears one of the troopers whimper from somewhere in the bedroom. The Captain rushes over and is greeted with a rather gruesome sight.

In the General’s bed is the rotting corpse of General Hux himself tucked under the much more rotted corpse of Kylo Ren. Sitting at the foot of the bed is a holocube. The Captain examines it. It is labeled “Leave the Ship and Watch This if You’ve Found Me”. The Captain slips the thing in his pocket and turns to his troopers.

“We need to leave,” The Captain says voice shaky. The troopers nodded and went back the way they came.

Once the Captain is back on their rescue ship he finds a quiet place to watch the holomovie that Hux had recorded before he died. He clicks the thing on and a sickly blue projection of The General in his full uniform begins floating above the little block.

“It has been six days since the outbreak,” General Hux says calmly, looking into the camera. “From what we have been able to determine, the virus was brought aboard by a lone trooper returning from a failed rescue operation. According to the medbay records, after the trooper was retrieved from the ship he was able to land he was pulled out unconscious and suffering a very high fever. The records also state that he was treated for extensive bite wounds,” Hux continues with a sigh. “It appears as if this was where the infection came from. Shortly thereafter, the trooper woke up and bit several medbay staff who tried to assist him. He was sedated and the medbay staff were treated for their wounds. None of this was brought to my attention until several of the medbay staff collapsed in the cafeteria,” Hux says through clenched teeth.

“Once I was informed I called Kylo Ren to come and investigate the issue with me. As the Supreme Leader’s apprentice I figured he may have seen this particular illness before. He had, unfortunately,” Hux says, nodding to someone just off camera. “Would you like to report on that, Ren?” There is a shuffling of feet and a hulking figure steps into frame. The Captain had never seen the man’s face, but he assumed it was Kylo Ren without his mask.

“The particular disease,” Kylo says, looking slightly off to the right of the camera like a spoiled child refusing to meet someone’s gaze. “Causes a madness to take hold in an individual. This madness includes fever, and delirium, as well as causes the infected to bite other uninfected individuals. The illness is passed through these bites. As far as I know, there is no cure. All who are infected by the virus must be destroyed,” Kylo grimaces and turns to Hux, who steps back into frame. Kylo takes this as his cue to move out of frame.

“Naturally, by the time I was informed of this, infected individuals were running amuck on board. Kylo Ren suggested that we barricade ourselves in my quarters. I attempted to send out a message to the fleet before we did so, but the transmitter array was damaged badly. The best I could do was to send out a distress becon,” Hux says rolling his eyes. The Captain knew that the distress becons had a very limited range. That was why it took so long to find the _Finalizer_. “That was 6 days ago,” Hux sighs.

“I intend to keep this log so if,” there was a scoff from Kylo Ren off camera. “IF, Ren, the fleet is unable to find us before we. . .” Hux clenches his teeth. “Expire, they will know what happened to the crew,”

“Don’t worry Hux, we’ll be fine,” comes a light beseeching voice off camera. “The Supreme Leader will find us,” Hux doesn’t reply, he just looks into the holorecorder and shuts it off.

There is a moment of blackness and then another video starts. It’s Hux, looking haggard, wearing nothing but his undershirt; he is sitting on the couch in his sitting room. He looks directly into the holorecorder’s lens.

“It has been twelve days since the outbreak,” he hangs his head and clenches his fists into his hair. “We ran out of food and clean water about five days ago. I kept telling Ren to just wait it out, that I was sure the First Order had found our beacon and were on their way. He snuck out sometime last night,” Hux sniffs and wipes his nose on his bare arm. “I told him not to, that he couldn’t take them all on. Of course he didn’t listen,” Hux rubs at his eyes and then looks up at the holorecorder lens again. His eyes are puffy, and were the holorecord in color the Captain was sure that they’d be red from crying.

“That damned fool. He got bitten on his way back,” Hux sobs. “He just fell unconscious about an hour ago. Ren had made me promise to put a blaster bolt in his head as soon as he passed out. The next time he woke up he wouldn’t be Ren anymore. He’d be one of those things,” Hux sniffs.

“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t shoot him. I tried, I did, but . . .” Hux pulls at his hair as if he’s going to rip it out. “I don’t know where you all are, but stars be damned you better get here fast,” Hux leans forward and flips the holorecorder off.

There is another swatch of blackness and then Hux is above the cube once more. This time he’s lying in his bed, holding the recorder at a distance. The mop of curly hair on his chest must belong to Ren. Hux has a wildness to his eyes that wasn’t there in the previous recordings.

“I never thought of that brute as fast,” Hux laughs, clenching his eyes closed. “I only opened the door for a moment to throw in another ration of nutrient paste and he was on top of me,” Hux laughs again, so hard that he coughs.

“Before I could finally put a bolt in his head he’d dug his teeth into my left shoulder,” Hux giggles. “He always did favor that one.” Hux shifts to sit up for a moment, pushing Ren’s dead body off of him.

“So this is a final farewell,” he says setting the cube down at the foot of the bed and looking into it. “If anyone ever finds this, know that we tried,” Hux lies back down on the bed. In the low light the Captain can tell that he shifts Ren’s corpse to lie against his chest again. Hux leans over and kisses the top of Ren’s head.

“I love you,” Hux whispers, lifting the blaster to his own temple and squeezes the trigger. There is a bright flash of light and stillness. The Captain fast forwards through the remaining footage. Nothing moves in the room. The holorecorder kept going until there was no data space left. It shuts off.

Suddenly a banging and a screaming erupts from the front cabin of the rescue ship. There is the firing of blasters and the screaming of the dying. The Captain pushes his way into the main cabin.

All around the cabin are his troopers with bite wounds in the gaps of their armor. There are a few corpses wearing first order uniforms.

“Captain, look out,” screams one of the downed troopers. Before the Captain can turn and draw his blaster there are teeth sinking into the tender flesh of his throat. He screams. There is the firing of a bolt and the pressure from the teeth releases, but the damage is done. He can feel the blood running down his chest from the bite wound. He glances around at the rest of his troopers.

“What was that Captain?” One of his men asks, dragging out a first aid kit that will do no good. The Captain sinks to his knees and puts his head in his hands, trying to work out how best to tell them what happens now.


End file.
